Holiday

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Pork Ribs with Noodle/ Rice

I planned to post the recipe a while back (I am talking about my plan yesteryear), but I forgot to take photos every time I cooked the dish....sighhh...so forgetful these days.

I always love oink oink & I enjoy experimenting different recipes with mr Porkie. One of my successful experiment is this pork ribs recipe. It is simple to make and quite an impressive dish, it can be served with rice or noodle. It can be paired with coriander, cucumber, boiled egg, 5 spice hard tofu etc.

It took me about 1.5 hr to prepare and cook the dish. Recipe origin is unknow, it's like a cross between Taiwanese & Indonesian dish ... Dare to try?

For 4 people


Ingredients:
  • 750 gr Pork Ribs (baikut)
  • 1/2 white radish - sliced into quarters
  • 3 pieces star anise
  • 3 cloves garlic - minced
  • 6 pieces cloves
  • 6 cm ginger - sliced thinly
  • 1 cup frozen Soya Beans
  • 2-3 tablespoon Yeo's Salted Soy Beans
  • 2-3 tablespoon kecap manis (Indonesian Sweet Soya Sauce)
  • 1/2-1 tablespoon Brown Sugar
  • White Pepper
  • 1.5 cup water
  • Coriander (for garnish)
  • 1 cucumber - diced (if served with noodle)
Methods:
  • Heat oil in a pot, stir fry ginger and garlic for 1-2 minutes
  • Add pork ribs, stir fry for about 5 minutes or till browned up
  • Add salted soya beans and kecap manis, stir fry for 1-2 minutes
  • Add water, cover the pot and put it on high heat for 30 minutes
  • Add radish, star anise, cloves, cook for about 20 minutes on medium heat/ till water is just covering the pork ribs
  • Add soya beans, brown sugar, white pepper
  • Ready to serve
Serving options:
  • With steamed rice + garnish with coriander
  • With udon/ yang chuen noodle + add diced cucumber + garnish with coriander

Note:
  • I sometimes add boiled egg/ lotus roots/ five spiced hard tofu to jazz up the dish

Friday, June 17, 2011

Iron Chef Cabramatta

Sunday, 08/05/2011
Whoopps I am very behind with my blogging coz I have been buried with work. After I got back from holiday I got like 440+ emails to action, took me about 1.5 week to go through & action all of them. I have been working like crazy to get my head above the water & when I get home I am quite exhausted to do anything. Anyway...enough whining, smile ... tomorrow is Friday !!

A few friends have been recommending Iron Chef (located in a suburb called Cabramatta). I haven't made any effort at all to go there, it is a little far from where I live. Such a coincidence that G picked Iron Chef for his birthday this year..woohoo. I finally have a valid excuse to go there to try their food.

We are unfamiliar with the Cabramatta area & how to get there business...thank God for the invention of GPS we reached Cabramatta (suburb - Sydney's little Vietnamese town) in 45 mins. Parking hunt took us about 10 minutes. The restaurant is massive with typical Chinese decor, fish tanks & the 2 dragons on the main entrance. It was packed on a Sunday night which is a good sign.

As usual, my gang over ordered everything, nothing new really =)
All the dishes are tasty, mostly lean meat, nicely presented and generous portion. The only downfall on that night was slow service & lack of staff .... perhaps it just happened that Mother's Day was on the same day as G's party. I will definitely go back for their roast duck. Thank you G for the great party !!

Cold dish - jelly fish, pig's ear, chicken feet, pork knuckle?
Peking duck pancake - Juicy & lean duck, crispy skin
Roast duck - Tasty, juicy, lean and crispy skin - highly recommended !!
Roast duck
Deep fried Quail - really crispy yet juicy
Salmon Fried Rice
Prawns in salted egg yolk
Sea cucumber stiry fry
Duck Noodle
Seasonal menu

Shandong chicken - Crispy chicken with vinegar sauce
Pork hotpot with preserved vegies - my less fave dish, pork was to fatty, nice to have a bite
Chocolate Doggy Birthday cake for G from Bread Top

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Survival Kit

Around 3 weeks ago, I was enjoying my 35 degrees holiday in Bali.....and eversince I landed myself in Sydneyland, weather has been everyone's worst enemy (except the farmers, they need the rains badly). Sydney's weather for the past 3 weeks has been wet, windy, cold, grey, with temperatures around 7-15 degrees. My folded umbrella recently RIP too thanks to the rain =)

Sydney's weather @ 5pm on the weekend from my balcony - grey, wet, windy

Extreme weather changes have made me (and most of my collegues) really sick. I stayed home for a few days to recover, slept 12-16 hrs a day - I felt like a hibernating bear. Surviving on these babies during my recovery mode:
  • Peppermint Tea
  • Mandarins - to boost my vitamin C intakes
  • Yalla Mango yoghurt - my favourite mango yoghurt, light, refreshing and gluten free
  • Maggie Beer Pumpkin Soup - top notch pumpkin soup, do they come in bigger container?
  • The Key Ingredients Wild Mushroom Soup - fresh, light & I love mushroom pieces
  • Sour Dough rolls
Yummy ready made soup ... I wish I knew a little earlier